the fundamental ground for the disparaging view held of practical activity. Depreciation is warranted on the basis of two premises: first, namely, that the object of knowledge is some form of ultimate Being which is antecedent to reflective inquiry and independent of itj secondly, that this antecedent Being has among its defining characteristics those properties which alone have authority over the formation of our judgments of value that is, of the ends and purposes which should control conduct in all fields intellectual, social, moral, religious, esthetic. Given these premises and only if they are accepted it fol- lows that philosophy has for its sole office the cognition of this Being and its essential properties.